I have just got up and there are rays of morning sun just dancing through fall color to draw bright streaks on the many trees that surround a peaceful creek below my house.  What joy this image of seeming pleasure brings.  It is calling for a long walk through the woods this afternoon down by the reservoir.

I am grateful for the healing that I have received over the last several years.  It is like I hit the lottery.  I know that many of you are looking for healing and know that there is hope and do not despair.

It has been a week of more job losses and people are excited about a couple of shootings that are more about our humanness than anything else.  I am saddened by the 6 to 8 thousand people that died this week from medical errors in the US.  We are human and we do err.  Only in forgiveness can we continue to live in community and it is this community that I desire.

It is difficult to know if the swine flu or the H1N1 virus as it is officially called is going to be an actor or just a reason to flash another news alert across the screen.  From what I can see of the numbers the deaths so far this year are within statistical variation for the flu.  This seems to be the case for the Southern Hemisphere where the peak of the season has passed.  I had a friend at a coffee shop tell me yesterday that he was off to get a flu shoot at the local community college as he had heard there were six thousand available.  I think his time may be better spent in a tanning booth with enough UVB to generate a healthy amount of cholecalciferol.

My daughter called last night in extreme distress as she opened the conversation using one of my made up explicatives.  A “cauldron of BS” she exclaims to her mother.  Of course this is a significant step up from “crap a maggot” although this lesser statement of angst seems grosser.  So she had done as I had suggested and installed the new virus protection engine on the internet security program that we use.  Only she had forgotten to disconnect from the internet during installation and she was attacked immediately with her firewall down.  It also seems that she had not been diligent about back up but I am sure that she will not have significant loss as she truly is a person of means.  Just another reminder of how dangerous this world can be.  Human attack or machine attack always there lurking waiting for a time when we least expect it.

Do we withdraw from a ‘life of the ages’?  Absolutely not!  Whichever founding father that said when you give up freedom for security you end up with neither was right on target.  Go and dance in community and enjoy life.  Know that danger is there but do not worry as one greater than we is drawing near.

Happiness is truly a choice.  – Pandemic Survivor